I was thinking after reading the hubbub about the fight bonus from the sledgehammer adding to checks involving fight only do skill cards (Will, Fight, Lore etc.) add to combat and spells checks? My reason for questioning this is that the wording on the sledgehammer and the skill cards is the same but if the skill cards do work that way they seem kinda useless.

Also the reckoning card Prisoner's Dilemma was drawn last night and none of the investigators had any power. I read it as the investigator with the least power, with no power being the least, would be driven insane but there was some dissent from the other player. The way the card A Little Taste is written appears to support my view but if she is right then that reckoning looks pretty pointless.

arkhamresident said:

A combat check is just a specialized type of fight check, so if a skill card (such as Grapple) says it boosts a fight check then it will boost the combat check. Note that it doesn't work the other way: for instance Grapple only helps combat checks, not fight checks. The same logic applies for the other types of specialized skill checks (sneak / evade, will / horror, lore / spell).

arkhamresident said:

Regarding Prisoner's dilemma: in my opinion someone has to pay (the Lurker is enough of a wimp already) - so even if no investigator has any power, pick one (say first players choice). Then treat that investigator as having the most (or the least power) and resolve the card accordingly.

ricedwlit said:

I think you may have got that a bit backwards, or I didn't follow your words. Grapple boosts fight checks, and thus combat checks. But I concur with everything else. Everything that adds to your skill checks will also add to the specialty skill checks that are predicated upon their corresponding skill checks. ie: all bonuses to fight checks also provide bonuses to combat checks; all bonuses to lore checks also provide bonuses to spell checks. The only exception I can think of is the sledgehammer which gives +3 to combat checks and the +1 to fight checks that it gives does not affect combat at all. It only gives +1 fight to all non-combat fight checks, including fight checks to close gates. Afaik, this is the only poorly worded exception; eg . Revelation of Script is clear that it only adds to all non-spell lore checks.

Apparently I dropped a few words (or the forum is dropping for me . I meant to say "... if a skill card (such as Grapple) says it boosts a fight check then it will also boost the specialized combat check as well " (missing words in italics ).

ricedwlit said:

I thought I had the rules down pat!

I've always been playing it literally that fight checks were only for fight checks and NOT for combat checks.

I guess I can take comfort that it's only a few games and that cards like Grapple did not come up too often...

arkhamresident said:

Here's the problem I see with treating Prisoner's Dilemma similar to A LIttle Taste. If nobody has power, then everybody ties for lowest AND highest power. So you would have to choose everybody goes insane, or everybody gets devoured. However, there is a subtle difference between this reckoning card and A Little Taste. A LIttle Taste says "investigator(s)" which means it can apply to more than one investigator, while Prisoner's Dilemma says "the investigator." I take this to mean that even if there is a tie, you only pick 1 investigator and you would break the tie similar to any other situation in the game: first player chooses. And yes, having no power would be the least amount of power.

Musha Shukou,

I belive that if you apply Arkham's Razor to this scenario, then the Prisoner's Dilemma Reckoning card would cause problems for more than one Investigator. However, if I were to receive this card, I would only apply it to those Investigators who possess a Dark Pact and not involve those Investigators who have not made an evil pact with the Lurker . Again, it's one of several interpretations ~ I'm just not a firm advocate of 'whatever hurts the Investigator' mantra which underscores Arkham's Razor .

I wouldn't apply Arkham's Razor in this scenario as causing more than 1 investigator to either be driven insane or devoured at the same time is quite severe and surpasses the mere "do what's worse for the investigators" especially from just 1 card. I still think that since the wording on Prisoners Dilemma says "the investigator" which is singular and the wording on A Little Taste is "investigator(s)" which is plural they will work as I offered above.